TRIALS of a digital platform to make salmon farming more efficient and sustainable, reducing exposure to sea lice, have started in Scotland.
An international consortium has set up the pioneering €1.3 million (£1.11m) pilot project at Badcall on the Highland coast in a bid to help push forward the aquaculture sector’s digital transformation.
Japan-based Uhuru United is leading the consortium, which also includes Amsterdam-listed Signify, Norway’s Optoscale AS, the Scotland-based Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC), salmon producer Loch Duart Ltd, and SB Telecom Europe Ltd.
The group said it is creating an "open data" software platform that will provide a single point for fish farmers to interact with and understand the data produced by a variety of technologies on their sites.
While there has been significant growth in the amount and diversity of technology used in aquaculture – ranging from fish health diagnostic tools to remotely operated underwater vehicles – over the last two decades, it is claimed many operate in isolation, limiting the value of data that can be taken and increasing the amount of time required to monitor operations.
The pilot project, called Aquaculture Insights, is aimed at tackling the challenge by creating a single software package that combines multiple data sources, offering insights that cannot be provided by existing systems, it is also claimed.
Heather Jones, chief executive of SAIC, said the project has significant potential.
“Better access to insightful data could be transformative for aquaculture, helping the sector to be more efficient and sustainable, while also helping fish farmers to develop new ways of working," she said. "Aquaculture Insights could have significant potential for aquaculture, supporting its sustainable growth ambitions, which need to be underpinned by technological innovation and excellence.
"We were delighted to help secure Loch Duart as the farming partner for real-world trials of this innovativetechnology.”
READ MORE: Scottish researchers to develop rapid disease tests for shellfish
The project is receiving funding from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which is part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Yosuke Kurihara, chief executive of Uhuru United, said the collaboration is an "important and ground-breaking project", adding: "We first established operations in the UK not just because it is a global centre for technological development but also because of its leading credentials in the field of sustainability.
"As such, this project is a perfect fit, using cutting-edge IoT technologies to best understand how we can maximise the efficiency of food production for a more sustainable future.
“We are also very proud to be working alongside companies from across Europe on a Scotland-based project funded by the EU. Scotland and Japan have built very strong links over the years.
"This is a true post-Brexit project demonstrating how the UK nations can work together to play an important role as a bridge between Europe and the wider world.”
The initiative will also seek to enhance the visualisation and transfer of data from connected devices and systems, beginning with Signify’s underwater LED lighting system and Optoscale’s AI-enabled biomass camera.
Remco Lansbergen, of Signify, said that “collaborating underwater is the future", adding: "With LED lighting we can increase growth, improve the feed conversion ratio of salmon and reduce exposure to sea lice.
"Making the lighting infrastructure part of an eco-system, along with sensors and data analytics, opens up new possibilities."
He added: "New data points and interoperability will enable new and advanced use cases and support a self-controlling infrastructure, advancing fish growth in a sustainable way.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here